Heaven and Hell (Harley) n. 313

313. Very many of the learned from the Christian world are astonished when they see themselves after death in a body, in garments, and in houses, as in the world. And when they recall what they had thought about the life after death, the soul, spirits, and heaven and hell, they are ashamed and say that they thought foolishly, and that the simple in faith thought much more wisely than they. Learned men who confirmed themselves in such ideas and ascribed all things to nature were examined, and it was found that their interiors were wholly closed up and their exteriors were open, so that they did not look to heaven, but to the world and also therefore to hell. For to the extent that man's interiors are open he looks to heaven, but to the extent that his interiors are closed and his exteriors opened he looks to hell, because the interiors of man are formed for the reception of all things of heaven, but the exteriors for the reception of all things of the world; and those who receive the world, and not heaven at the same time, receive hell.# # In man the spiritual world and the natural world are conjoined (n. 6057). The internal of man is formed after the image of heaven, but the external after the image of the world (n. 3628, 4523, 4524, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9706, 10156, 10472).


This page was taken from HeavenlyDoctrines.org
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church